Yes, it's futa, though. Not my cup of tea. I meant more specifically yuri, with his muscle girl couple.

Hey, speaking of 23 (in another comment from this set)! I've given up hope that he'll ever draw a multi-panel story/sex scene, but I guess we'll always have the delicious one-shots.

The fact that Ikarin draws such beautiful, realistic big breasts but never any breast worship is one of my Great Travesties of Yuri. It may be second only to 23 never drawing a full sex scene or anything with a story.

Need moar, Ikarin!

A MNK installment with no lactation? What is this treachery? Should we be worried that Homura Subaru has been kidnapped?

Dorothy's name was actually kind of a pain to translate because it seems like the author wanted it to be Spanish/Italian but they seemingly misspelled it, so I had to do a bit of guess work with another translator who speaks Spanish.

If anyone wants to have a guess her name in Japanese is: ドロレス・リリィ・アルゲンクルス

Her last name is actually glued together in the original Japanese script but I know for a fact Cruz is always a separate name so I split it, because "alguencruz" isn't a real name.

Your choice seems sound. "クルス" = "cross," so "Cruz" makes sense. I tried some derivations of and combinations with the first half but the best I could find was the Argen river, some unremarkable river in Germany. Or a manufacturer of dental amalgams.

Curious why you went with "Priest Marco" - "Father Marco" would be the correct address if Catholicism is the reference point.

It's not I'm pretty sure. Blade is ブレード, but the title has バレッド. The author himself spells it as "gunbured", with "red" highlighted in red, likely a reference to "red sisters", and I think the first half is meant to come from gun bullet.

Interesting, thank you for the details. The whole katakana transliteration of "bullet" causes problems anyway (see: Yurikuma Arashi, and even FF7), but adding some wordplay on top of it? Crazy mangaka. :p

Why? When did the manga assume to be realistic in any way?

I agree that the premise is probably creepy, but I won't readily dismiss an author's premise because it is, after all, an author's premise.

Why what? I'm not saying it has to be realistic in any way. I'm saying people are irritated by the premise because it's poorly developed and defies all logic for a story set in our world with no explanation for it. Because a few people asked why others are finding this particular work so annoying, and that's my explanation, at least. Also, because of the title and the inability to tag it properly (it's technically loli, but then again, it isn't), readers who would normally not be interested in a story like this are going to end up reading it, so therefore you're going to end up with a lot more "WTF" comments since people aren't self-selecting not to read it, like they would if it had the loli tag.

The author is of course free to establish whatever premise they want. And readers are free to critique the premise as implausible, unbelievable, underdeveloped, poorly explained, etc. I don't have to agree that the premise makes sense or is any good.

Let's look at this from the other side. A reasonable person would never see an adult-looking female (tall, woman's curves, big breasts) wearing a childish backpack and immediately jump to the conclusion that she must be an elementary school student, as the protagonist does here. Which means one of two things:

1. The protagonist, despite being either a career woman (or college student - translator here is confusing) is deeply stupid and is making a ridiculous assumption from a very circumstantial bit of information. There's no evidence that this is the case so far, but if this turns out to be the twist I'd find this premise dumb too.

2. The situation is intended to be taken on face value, that for some unexplained reason there actually is a tall, voluptuous elementary school student at her gym for this woman to get thirsty over. Which I have already stated my opinions on, and which to me as presented so far is less of a premise for a story and more of the author's special fetish being manifested. (And, sure, fine for them - their time, their art, their story, of course they can indulge their fetish like every other mangaka does. Doesn't make it immune from critique.)

last edited at Aug 11, 2020 2:45AM

Oh, also, I think the word in the title is supposed to be "Gunblade," in reference to Maria's absurd half-gun half-sword superweapon.

As far as I can tell, "Noel" is a genderless name. Wikipedia confirms it's used for boys and girls, and I've seen several Japanese characters named Noel who spelled it like that as well. It's also easier to typeset, being shorter (longer names can run into trouble in smaller bubbles)

There are specifically female variations on the name, with Noelle being one of them (particularly in French), but because this is a work of fiction not explicitly set in any one country, I'm gonna go with Noel for now.

I'll change it should the author give an official romanization of her name.

Your call of course. I'm familiar with the Christmas connotation and pronunciation of the word, but I every "Noel" I've ever known is male and pronounces it "ノール". What can I say but "language is weird. "

I'm supposed to believe that that grown-ass woman only weighs 43kg?
Further, that weighing 50-something is even remotely "heavy" for an adult?

Fuckin' hell Japan.

Yeah. Quick survey of google results gives 51-53 kg. as the average weight for women in Japan. So Saki, who is frequently referred to and drawn as "gigantic" in the original, would be right around average, and Shizuku would have to be a tiny, tiny person.

Another point in the "manga for girls displaying an unhealthy fixation on abnormally low weight" column I guess.

They devote half a page to the Sensei pointing out that the gyaru has even larger breasts then herself, and then never have her so much as caress them? Ugh, wasteful story telling.

Welcome to the "Yuri H-Manga Breast Lovers Society," which is more of a support group than a fan club. You're in for decades of frustration! Here are some excerpts from our helpful welcome packet that you can pick up at any of our weekly meetings:

• The first rule of h-manga breast fetishists is, the better the artist is at drawing big breasts, the less likely they are to draw yuri.

• Whether or not they draw yuri, they probably won't draw much of any breast attention. Even if it's futa, which, you would think, they are specifically drawing boobs on the characters for a reason, but no, it's still all about the dick.

• If the manga includes lactation, there's still like 90% chance it doesn't include any breast sucking.

• The inverse of the first rule is also true - the more likely a yuri h-manga is to have decent attention on boobs, the poorer the art quality is likely to be.

You can look forward to an exciting future of finding all of the new and novel ways your favorite artists will disappoint you by skipping or botching nearly every opportunity and golden setup for breast fetish stuff. Yaay! It becomes kind of a holy grail thing - will an artist who draws hot characters and non balloon-ish big boobs ever make a non-violent, non-rapey, yuri h-manga that has a lot of detailed hot breast worship? I've been looking for 20 years, I'll let you know when I find it.

• Bonus if it doesn't devolve into some gross over-the-top bondage stuff.

** You're looking to shoot the moon if you're into lactation and you want that in there too, but we include it in our bylaws just in case.

last edited at Aug 9, 2020 8:28PM

What gets called/translated as "arranged marriage" isnt exactly what you may be envisioning. It's not like the pair were committed at birth to marry, or the woman sold off or forced into it. It's more of a formal, old-fashioned matchmaking system. The couple still gets a say but there is familial pressure to acquiesce to candidates with the "proper" qualities - lineage, money, etc. with little or no emphasis on "love" or attraction. And certainly no concern over whether either person might be non cishet - it's all about securing the family name and making babies.

Given that marriage at its root is a legal construct and historically somewhat of a business partnership (the running of a family) it's perhaps not too surprising that these types of marriages do tend to actually be "successful" in terms of staying together (matching people of similar social standing and goals). But I'm guessing the caveat in that is a lot of blind-eye-turning to infidelities or just finding love and social fulfillment other places (job, friends).

Quick note that "Noel" is typically the spelling of the male version of the name, and "Noelle" the female. Assuming it's originally written "ノエル", you should use the latter romanization.

Regardless of whether this idea is "new" or not doesn't make it any more believable or less stupid. The thing that makes this work so irritating and others less so is that if you're going to break with accepted reality in fiction there needs to be an explanation, reason, or internal logic to it. E.G. if an ecchi series has a bunch of "high school girls" who are all drawn with tiny waists, DDD tits, and skimpy costumes, it's easy to understand: the author is working in a particular genre and the way he draws the characters is in service of that. This just reeks of a lazy fetish indulgence - the author just has a thing with the idea of a "hot" elementary school girl. It's not about why this girl is unusual, it's about the other woman's inappropriate attraction. Perspective and reasoning matter if the audience is going to accept your bullshit.

Also, just because you can come up with a (barely) plausible explanation, doesn't mean that the situation as shown is plausible. It's the author's responsibility to explain something this outlandish if it's not intended to be straight fetish.

And to the person questioning whether or not a year is a big deal: I mean, first off there's the obvious answer that one increment in the little number next to the "age" line can mean the difference between jail and not, between being allowed in or allowed to buy or allowed to do and not. But on a more scientific level, a year's time growing up means some big physical changes. The difference between an 11 year old and a 13 year old can't be dismissed. (And I mean that just in terms of their physical appearance, not acceptability for attraction. The obsession with 14 as the "ideal age" is a whole other discussion. But at least being post-pubescent and at the age of consent is... something?)

Yeahhhh,.... this is one of those things that only works in manga (like the aforementioned loli adult women, etc.) due to the simplification of drawings (not to mention the suspension of disbelief). In real life I don't care how early you hit puberty, an adult is not going to mistake a child for a college student.

Also, I dunno if school starts later in Japan, but in the US sixth grade would be 11-12, not 12-13.

She-Ra, doing yeoman's work creating an army of new tall girl, size contrast, and lift-and-carry fetishists.

I know I'm focusing on the wrong thing here but... their breasts are the same size. ><; (and honestly not that big by manga standards but whatevs.)

last edited at Jul 25, 2020 1:53AM

Read the raw for this a long time ago elsewhere; it's such a disappointment. The artist has a really nice and distinctive style, and so many of the tags are straight on my bullseye, and then... it just kind of lands with a "that's it?" Like finding out that pretty present is just tube socks or that the ice cream you picked is fish flavor.

Maybe it's because the artist's other stuff is all het or futa? He doesn't really know how to draw women having sex with each other? It's really kind of disjointed, there's no flow or payoff, and it's a freaking lactation manga with no breast sucking. Just sad trombones all around.

last edited at Jul 23, 2020 10:56PM

Why not? Because I would rather see a different story that's why. Other people hope this story goes down like poly relations and such and that is fine, all the power to them. I like annngst and jealousy and want to see a Mai that realized her own cowardness nearly lost her a shot at her childhood romance (which she still thinks about for because she's staring at a pic of Asumi when Sayaka walks in) and see her have to struggle for her happy ending, I'll root for her. Usually in these types of win the heart of your prostitute love interest it's characters like Asumi who has to go through the jealously and put in the work but I love a good reversal.

You say that is messed up, big deal, so is everyone who ever enjoyed a horror movie. I like stories with emotional turmoil and am not going to apologize for it. It's why I like Madoka more than Sailor Moon, doesn't man I still don't enjoy Sailor Moon btw, just like Madoka more. If this turns out to be a bubbly poly romp with no jealously and toxicity that is fine, I'll even still like it but I hope it gets a bit dark.

Hey, that's totally fine. You're admitting those themes are a "thing" for you (fetish, however you prefer to call it) and not a universal truth, and that's cool. There's just too many people around here who get like, genuinely angry when characters aren't "pure" and god forbid date or have sex with more than one person or fuck up or have messy relationships or do anything relatably human, and want bad things to happen to them because of it. IMO that's messed up (and not where you're at, I get it now).

Worse, I think it's detrimental to those people (who I am making the assumption have no or limited experience with dating and relationships) and their ability to navigate future relationships to be fixated on the "pure" romance fantasy stereotype. If you think the shining example of love is "found my one true love in middle/high school and never so much as looked at anyone else" you're in for a lot of confusion, hurt, and disappointment when you find out reality doesn't work that way.

But again, if you're self-aware enough to recognize the difference between something that appeals to you personally and a standard everyone must meet, it's all good. I have plenty of my own!

I want Mai to find out that her old love Asumi has been pining for her all these years, that Asumi started seeing prostitutes just to find her, that she even lost her virginity to Mai's best friend and I want that to hit Mai in the feels a bit. I want Mai to feel she missed her opportunity to have that classic fairytale romance because she never went back for Asumi who she left an alone and confused child and she has to live with that choice.

Dude, thats a bit messed up... Is what i was about to say because i read your comment wrong, i somehow swapped Asumi and Mai around for the first half of that bracket
(_)

No, it's still plenty messed up. Why not "Mai is happy to be reunited with her friend regardless, and happy her friend was able to have a bunch of positive experiences with sex workers (of which she is one so she knows their value) to help her with her confidence and repression of her physical needs. She doesn't give a shit about 'virginity' or toxic fairy tale romance tropes and is glad not to be stuck with the pressure of being the first (or maybe one and only in your way of thinking) sex partner Asumi has ever had."

This is absolutely ridiculous smutty nonsense. ... * subscribes *

Do most of the people recollect their thoughts only while bathing?

How do you do your introspection if not while lathering yourself up in suggestive poses?

last edited at Jul 21, 2020 2:48AM

Props to this artist, this is one of the sexiest no-naughty-bits drawings I can remember. Plus, it basically tells an entire story in three panels if you know the characters. Great stuff!

(Not that I wouldn't like to see the rest of the scene ifyaknowwhatimean...)

last edited at Jul 6, 2020 11:54PM

It's not a katakana "タ", it's a kanji "夕" (yuu).

Ah, makes sense, thanks. Easy to make the mistake because with the translation, I've never seen her name written in kanji. Plus everyone else's bubble indicators are kana, and the author tends to cross the third stroke so it looks more like "ta".

Random thoughts:

1. Disappointed this ended early but not surprised. The author pretty much removed all of the traditional drawbacks of vampirism, either modern or historical. It was pretty much all upside with no conflict to speak of and the usual mess of yuri-by-implication-accompanied-by-fervent-denials plotlines. I did like that Yuunagi was allowed to just be powerful and cool and not all moe-cutesy, and that Rin was able to be a decent male character who was quirky and funny and not a perv. But there just never was a story to speak of even if the characters were fun.

2. The art is distinctive and detailed, and again I like the non-moe character design aesthetic a lot. But it often feels very flat, and the female) characters suffer a terminal case of sameface. They all have the exact same height, build, and facial features, just a different mop of hair on top. Felt like interchangeable paper dolls.

3. The question I came to ask: if the character's name is "Yuunagi Irie," why are her offscreen speech bubbles marked with the katakana "タ"?

I only watched the Saki anime, so I'm curious - are they still playing that same tournament that is the focus of the anime?

I'm genuinely impressed/dumbfounded that " a group of girls play a mahjong tournament" is a premise that could sustain 12 years, 5 series, and nearly 400 chapters worth of content. Like, I genuinely have no explanation for how it could keep people's interest that long.